Any Colour You Like
"Any Colour You Like" is the eighth track from English progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It is an instrumental written by David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, making it one of three tracks on the album that Roger Waters did not receive writing credit for, the last Pink Floyd track that Waters had no part in writing while he was still a member, and the last Pink Floyd studio track credited to Mason until The Endless River. Composition The piece itself features no lyrics, and consists of a synthesised tune which segues into a guitar solo (some scat vocals are added later on; these were more prominent in live versions but are still audible in the studio cut). It is approximately three minutes, 25 seconds in length. The song used advanced effects for the time both in the keyboard and the guitar. The VCS 3 synthesizer was fed through a long tape loop to create the rising and falling keyboard solo. David Gilmour used two guitars with the Uni-Vibe guitar effect to create the harmonizing guitar solo for the rest of the song. "Any Colour You Like" is also known (and is even listed on the Dark Side guitar tablature book ) as "Breathe (Second Reprise)" because the song shares the same beat (albeit somewhat funkier and uptempo) as the album's first song "Breathe". It has also nearly the same chord sequence just transposed a whole step lower from E minor to D minor. While the song is instrumental, it has been speculated that the song ties to The Dark Side of the Moon concept by considering the lack of choice one has in human society, while being deluded into thinking one does. It is also speculated that the song is about the fear of making choices. The origin of the title is unclear. One possible origin of the title comes from an answer frequently given by a studio technician to questions put to him: "You can have it any colour you like", which was a reference to Henry Ford's apocryphal description of the Model T: "You can have it any color you like, as long as it's black." (Ford said something very like this in his autobiography.Henry Ford, My Life and Work. Although the Model T was in fact produced in other colours, those that were had all been produced before the introduction of moving conveyor belts sped up production. After that point, black paint was used for all Model T's, since it was faster drying.) Roger Waters may have settled this question, in an interview with musicologist and author Phil Rose, for Rose's collection of analytical essays, Which One's Pink?: Live versions On earlier Pink Floyd bootlegged versions of the song, there was no keyboard solo, and the song served as a long jam piece called "Scat Section" or "Scat". Gilmour frequently sang along with his guitar solo and the band's female backing singers would sometimes come up on stage and sing as well. In 1975, it was often extended, sometimes up to nearly fifteen minutes. Gilmour and the backing singers often sang along with it. In 1994, it was considerably modified, to be more keyboard-heavy, though not extended, as in all earlier performances. This version is included on Pulse. Waters performed it in his 2006–08 ''The Dark Side of the Moon Live'' tour. Personnel *David Gilmour - electric guitars, scat singing *Richard Wright - Hammond organ, EMS VCS 3, EMS Synthi A, Minimoog *Roger Waters - bass *Nick Mason - drums, percussion References ;Footnotes ;Citations Category:1973 songs Category:Pink Floyd songs Category:Rock instrumentals Category:Songs written by Nick Mason Category:Songs written by David Gilmour Category:Songs written by Richard Wright (musician) Category:Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Category:Song recordings produced by Roger Waters Category:Song recordings produced by Richard Wright (musician) Category:Song recordings produced by Nick Mason